I succumbed to the postings of a reviewer. Several days ago someone on twitter reviewed an early screening of 510 stating it was one of Fear's best episodes ever. My curiosity was piqued.....

Granted the episode was a vast improvement over any previous episode of season 5. Let's be honest though, the bar has been set pretty damn low. I mean REALLY damn low.

One of the best ever? Pffft this person must have only started watching Fear in season 4

Scale of 1 to 10. If I take into account that I have been generous in handing out ratings of 2 this season. I did not watch episode 7 nor 8 and 9 was simply utilized as background noise. So those will not factor into the comparison graph

I give this episode a 4.

Morgan's future story arc is so damn obvious. Yawn.

This show has zero tension. Zero OMG moments.

Yep they have set Dwight's character on the road to being ruined by having him fall hook line and sinker for the Morgan philosophy of save everyone consequences be damned.

Even Daniel has lost edge, his spark, that certain something that made him Daniel

Best thing about the episode - no Strand, no June, no John

These characters are incapable of making sound decisions

And wishy washy to boot. I want it, I dont want it. I believe in the power of love, I dont believe in power of love. WAH WAH WAH.

Rick would hate these people. Engage murder jacket

At this point I may just watch the season to see just how ridiculous these ass hats can make it

I am beginning to have more faith that TWD3 will be more inline with TWD in its storytelling and themes, that it will be more compelling than Fear 5.0 - even with a cast composed mainly of the under 25 crowd. I am of the opinion that having a former TWD writer (Matt Negrete) as their showrunner will be an advantage.

 

Yes, the bar is ridiculously low. I feel like each episode is about the same - just a new person to "save". I trained my dogs years ago to be quiet for one hour on Sunday night - now I keep hoping that in some way they'll distract me. Yet I keep watching in hopes that some spark from S3 will return. Agree with that spoiler you posted. I was pissed that Daniel put Skidmark in the pickup truck bed - definitely some points off from a already low point system. A 3, and that's generous.

 

This was one of the better episodes of the season, but it still had problems. If we'd just had the scenes at the mall it wouldn't have been all that bad. My problem was with Dwight being taken captive. First, he did it on purpose. Why? To get himself killed? To convert Logan's man to Morgan's utopian vision? It makes no sense.

They conveniently had only one person take Dwight, so it didn't give him multiple people to win over. The whole scenario though would've been much more intriguing if Dwight killed that guy instead, showing that at least ONE person is on a different page from Morgan.

Unless something drastically changes this whole "conflict" against Logan is going to end up being resolved in a peaceful way. It's so unrealistic.

 

You know it is bad when you find yourself not only agreeing with but laughing with Erik Kaine

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikka...ng-good-about-this-show-anymore/#3c05625e181f

(from the article) "So . . . okay, I was supposed to be recapping. Morgan and Grace and Dwight go to a mall where a guy who needs help is, because that's what this show is all about now. The Super Best Friends get a cry for help from someone who watched their stupid movie and off they go to help him. They're even willing to risk their lives to help him even though he's probably dead already, something Dwight rightly points out.

But that won't stop Grace and Morgan, because they are so holy and noble and brave and my god they're boring. I zoned out through all their endless conversations about literally nothing. I wanted to go back to sleep. It took all my willpower to not just play PUBG on my phone or zone out counting flowers on the wall."

 

Every single episode this season has been a bottle episode. Like I said after the last few episodes, they are writing this season how a sitcom or drama series is written. Each episode is it's own contained story that loosely connects to the larger story.

I mean at the end of the episode when Morgan said he needed to go find Al, I was thinking "Al isn't with the caravan?".

Like most of the episodes in seasons 4 and 5, there is no setup, and usually no conclusion. Just characters in situations with no explanation as to how they got there or how they get out. I feel like a broken record with this stuff but it's because every episode is the same formula. And once again we have a contained episode with small connections to the larger story.

But what, exactly, is this larger story? Logan wanting the oil fields? What about taking back the factory, is that just not a thing any more? What is with the oil fields anyway, do they know how to refine it and make gas?

Why are they in a caravan? They feel that keeping on the move will protect them from Logan's group? Wasting all that gas in all those vehicles instead of fortifying a location? I literally have no idea what they are doing and their long term goals are.

The mall was both interesting and incredibly stupid. A generator that size will obviously not run an entire mall, and all the rides, including the carousel wouldn't automatically start running.

Why were all those walkers there? The doors were barricaded leading us to believe that survivors made that their home, and those walkers were the survivors who all died. But why was the clinic locked and the key hanging in the security office? If survivors were there they would have wanted access to the clinic.

The only interesting part of the episode was Grace and Morgan and their connection. Grace clearly falling for Morgan, Morgan obviously scared of having feelings for another woman. He hasn't come to terms with his own loss yet. Watching her reaction when he walked away, Morgan became the horse that ignored Grace. So I think their relationship could be really interesting, if they start to explore Morgan never dealing with the loss of Jenny and Duane. Watching him finally come to terms and accept those losses might help Morgam find a middle ground between helping people and understanding that some people can't be saved and need to be killed.

We'll see where it a goes. But I hope they fire these show runners and a new one is brought on for season 6.

 

This show is at the point of being iconic because of how bad it is. Right there with movies like Howard the Duck and Plan 9 From Outer Space.

 

THIS!!!! I was so confused. I was like "where the hell is Al? And why is she alone"..

I just chalked it up to me not watching episodes 7,8 and 9 (it was on did not pay close attention).

I should have known her absence was due to unfinished writing or perhaps writing that was never started yet we are suppose to magically fill in the blanks

I agree with you 100% - the people running this show are morons and they need to be kicked out on their arses. Like yesterday!

 

So he did say he was going to look for Al. I thought so, but I was thinking...why isn't she with the caravan? Great...another piece of the story that they didn't show and we just find out about it later when it's convenient for moving someone or something else in the story along. In this case, it was an excuse for Morgan to run away from Grace. Their story could be interesting if they get around to telling it.
I didn't understand what Dwight was trying to accomplish by unloading his gun and luring Logan's people to track him. What if there were more than one that showed up?
I could almost enjoy this in a way by changing my mindset. I could view it as these individuals trying to make a better world because what's the point in surviving if everyone who is left is an asshole with zero moral compass.
But. These missing pieces of the story are annoying.
What exactly happened with them and Logan before they dumped him on the road somewhere? Who knows?
Al is out there alone. Why? Doing what?
What happened at the oil fields?
They skip over these pieces to give more time for heartfelt speeches and philosophies. It gets tiresome.
I loved the look on Daniel's face when Dwight said he let the Logan guy go. He didn't agree with that anymore than he agreed with not killing Logan. So there's hope that he hasn't been completely brainwashed and that some logic and realism may still make an appearance in this group.
I agree that all of this driving around in a huge caravan is a major waste of gas. I suppose they're afraid to settle these people anywhere for fear that Logan and his merry band of heavily armed thugs will find them?
So what's the plan here?
I can't imagine that they can flip everyone in his group to their viewpoint. That would be ludicrous. Maybe a few, but I doubt it would be enough to tip the scales in their favor.
I guess that I just have no idea where they're going with this.
Their save the world outlook could work, but I can't see that happening unless they remove Logan and company from the playing field.
Positives from this episode... No Luciana, who has become a shadow of the character she used to be. The only difference between her and the zombies is that she isn't trying to eat anyone's brains. No kids from the rescue operation. No Al and her damn camera.
They found that guy at the mall and gave him a peaceful sendoff. That was nice, but what the hell happened at that mall? Were the dead also survivors taking refuge there and something went horribly wrong? Or was he just living alone on the top floor? The guy in the red jacket that Grace went after had been dead a long time. Maybe that explains why no one raided that urgent care? Because the first floor was flooded with the dead? Considering that the mall looked as if it was closed... gates pulled down, etc.... I don't understand why they would be there unless they were survivors who later died and turned. If they were they would have opened that emergency care though.
It seems like the actual story is being ignored for the sake of soul-searching and speeches.
It somehow wasn't as bad as most of the episodes have been, though. I give it a 3 or 4?
Sorry for the rambling diatribe.

 

but is that really saying anything?the last 2 episodes were a 1 and a 2.

 

I think 4/10, or 4.5/10 is a fair rating for this "best episode".

I get that in 10 years of Walking Dead universe they stayed away from shopping malls (even if it's a no-brainer they'd be on top of everybody's list) because it's just too clearly a Dawn of the Dead thing. I mean, we got the hospital, the prison, but not the obvious shopping mall location pick. That was not a good way to finally go there, huge let down.

 

This is what bothers me the most about this season. It reminds me of one of Jay Bonansinga's Walking Dead book series that I stopped reading. There was one where this group just kept driving around. It made no sense there either.

We were also told that Wendell is at one of the truck stops with the kids. Now if Logan's group is looking for them, they're more vulnerable there alone with a guy in a wheelchair than they would be driving around with the others.

So, like you said, it would make sense to fortify a single location and build from there. Also, if you drive around constantly these older vehicles are going to breakdown. So a convoy makes zero sense.

 

Also, a convoy is noisy in this world. If you don't want people to find you, you don't turn on even one car, let alone a long string of cars.

 

They would be drawing walkers from miles away. Also previously they often demonstrated the difficulty of driving around in the apocalypse. In TWD's Clear during Season 3 when they went to Rick's hometown and met up with Morgan again, the backpack guy almost caught up with them because they had to work around abandoned cars. You just wouldn't be able to drive freely up and down the roads with huge trucks. It'd be impossible.

 

He is reduced to Skidmark sidekick at that point...

 

It's pretty sad. He has to be thinking, I came back to the show for this?

 

Considering what a shit show this season has been - being the sidekick to Skidmark is the best role to have in this show! At least Skidmark's dialogue and general understanding of what it means to survive in the ZA makes the most sense of anyone on the series

 

There used to be a time when we were all like "get out of here if you don't like the show!!", now look at us...